I finished reading the Planet Pirates (omnibus) some time ago. At the time I was reading it I didn't think it was weird/wrong, but thinking back I just feel that it didn't make sense that Lunzie would leave her daughter at that point in time when she did. I haven't got the book with me at the moment, but I think Fiona was 14 when Lunzie left. Lunzie was supposed to be gone for a couple of years, but ends up being lost for a long time and then she is sad because she missed seeing Fiona growing up. What annoys me, is that Fiona would have been old enough to go away for college and move away from home anyway at the time when Lunzie would have been back from the money earning thing she was going away for. Of course, they would have stayed in touch and such, but she would still have not been there for an important character building period of Fionas life.

I think Lunzie might nat have left if she really needed the money right at that time, and not later on. Maybe if she hadn't gone, Fiona wouldn't have been able to go to college at all. Not sure I'm making snese...

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It was an odd time, but I would agree with Tresa that the money was needed. Lunzie also had a very specialized career, one for which there wouldn't be tons of opportunity and most of those would require going somewhere that she wouldn't want to bring her daughter. And if she waited several years working jobs out of her specialty, she might just lose the career opportunity altogether.

I guess you're right. As I said, it made sense to me as I was reading it, and of course Lunzie had to leave or there wouldn't have been a story.

Hmm, I haven't really thought about that Anne likes her "heroines" to run off and and then end up having adventures (Menolly, Killa, Lunzie). Hmm, okay so not all of her heroines; I guess Lessa was more the stay put and fight type.

The first Peter Reidinger used his Talent to help him escape some pretty grievous circumstances, and ended up having some pretty amazing adventures. He's not a heroine, though. Come to that, neither is Afra, who managed to get an invitation to the Rowan's Tower, to escape from Methody Capella. So it's not an exclusively female thing.

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Lunzie was leaving because she had to get the money - there was no real opening on the Colony (Tau Ceti if I recall correctly) - it was a case of take the Descartes Mining Platform job, or go with Fiona and hope that something better would come along... at least leaving Fiona on Tau Ceti she knew she'd be cared for and would be safe (which was more than she would be)

Remember as well she was hoping to get enough to pay her O2 money and join the Colony - so Fiona would simply be staying at home while Mum went off to work.

As you said, there isn't much cause to practice Space Psychology (as close as I can remember to Lunzie's career choice) dirtside!!

I think that Lunzie must have made reperation with whomever she left in charge of Fiona in case she didn't come back. Despite the fact that spacetravel/life seems generally much safer then than it does now, Lunzie would have known that accidents can and do happen (that is part of her speicalisation, after all) and must have made plans to cover that eventuality. I don't think that she would have been a good mother without it, and as we can see, Lunzie cares a great deal about her family. Although saying that, she does have a handy case of "oh, an accident where I've been frozen again - ah well, must carry on regardless".

...., she does have a handy case of "oh, an accident where I've been frozen again - ah well, must carry on regardless".

Having just read the part in Death of Sleep where Lunzie is 'frozen' for the first time I think that part of her reaction to being in cold sleep had to do with a couple of things, first her medical background helped as she had access to all the data on cold sleep and secondly she had just had the session with the other miner who had been in cold sleep for 10 years. It was fresh in her mind and so she tried to put things in perspective using his experiences and her medical knowledge. I guess I'm saying that she had the tools to handle the experience and did so very well. Now her subsequent sleeps, those seem to be a bit harder to understand how she took them so well, but I think I can see how she could handle them. Her family was gone, basically Fiona was older now and by the time she had to sleep again possibly had died. (been a while since reading so details are sketchy, sorry) She also had a shorter sleep time, which could be easier on her after sleeping once, kinda like a little cat nap after 63 years the first time. She knew what she needed to do and did it. The same with the others, she had knowledge and used it to her advantage, to help her get thru the awakenings. She also was an Adept which helped hugely! She had to go to that temple (?) place for a while so they helped her there too. So a good support system, one not available to the normal person, along with her knowledge which also wasn't availalbe to the normal person.
Lunzie is my favorite character, mainly because she does endure some very hard times (in some ways the tuffest times of all Anne's characters, to me) and keeps hold of her sanity and also grows as an individual, beyond her wildest expectations.
(I sure hope this makes sense, I was headed to bed when I stopped at this thread) sorry if this doesn't make sense, I'll be sorry too when I read over this tomorrow!

P'ter, I just read that in Generation Warriors today! She is even surprised that he is still the same after her 46 years of sleep on Ireta. Maybe he can slow down his heart rate and things like that so he ages, but slower?
I enjoyed the part with Lunzie getting back into shape and coming to terms with her sleeps and her life.
I've thought throughout the books that her sleeps were somehow planned. What with Tor finding her after her first coldsleep and Tor being on the ARCT-10. Lunzie even wondered, after Tor found her the first time, if he knew she was there and waited to find her.
What do you think?

Lunzie is my absolute favorite character of all Anne's writings. Lunzie is so strong and manages to carry on and fit in the current time even when all of the people she knew in the past are gone. I think that is amazing... to be alone and still be able to be your own person no matter where or when you, would take an incredible amount of self confidence and self-esteem.

I think Anne gets too much into the fostering roles of her parent characters. Rowan grows up with fostered parents, Lessa grew up with no parents, Rowan and Lessa both foster out their kids to leave room for them to work..... That Lunzie has strong family ties, but shrugs off being with family for the job opportunities. Acceptable to Anne.